MARESCA, ANTONIO MARIA. - Barnabite ascetical writer, b. at Carovigno (Brindisi) on 24 Nov. 1831, d. at Rome on 26 March 1891. Having entered the Order in 1853 and become a priest in 1859, he taught in the colleges of his Order at Teramo, Parma and Bologna. The first director general of the Apostleship of Prayer in Italy, he began at Parma in 1864 the publication of the Messaggero del S. Cuore (for two years an adaptation of the French Messager du S. Coeur), afterwards independent.
In 1887, on the occasion of the priestly jubilee of Leo XIII, to the Messaggero M. added Il devoto del S. Cuore, a monthly review of the works and the cult of the Heart of Jesus, and Il Rosario vivente in loose leaflets which reached a circulation of 30,000 copies a month.
Also institutions of Fr. M. are the Pious Unions of the Oblates of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and of the Priests of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the ecclesiastical student of the Young Apostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus for poor vocations of southern Italy (1874), later closed for lack of means, the Association of the 33 years in honor of Jesus (1879), the fervent movement of consecration of families and the petition to Pius IX for the consecration of the dioceses of Italy and then of Rome and of the world to the Heart of Jesus, the first works for the construction of the votive temple of the Sacred Heart at Castro Pretorio, later continued and brought to completion by the sons of St. John Bosco. At his death, Fr. M. left his work to his confrere Fr. Vitale, who directed it for another twenty-five years, more eventful and more practical; until from 1917 the general direction of the Apostleship of Prayer and of the Messaggero, with the cessation of its publications Il devoto, passed also for Italy to the Jesuits who still maintain it at their church of the Gesù.